Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Drawing Lines.

Drawing Lines

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 8, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

1

Excel provides tools that allow you to create a number of shapes that were previously only available through the use of a drawing program. One of these shapes is a line. (Yes, the simple line!) Here's the easiest way to create your line:

  1. Select a line weight and type by clicking on the Line Style tool on the toolbar.
  2. Click on the line tool.
  3. Position the mouse pointer where one end of the line is to be located.
  4. Click and hold the mouse button.
  5. Drag the mouse until the line is the desired length.
  6. Release the mouse button.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2460) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Drawing Lines.

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Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 7 + 3?

2015-12-10 22:08:49

Dave Onorato

Hint: If you also hold the Shift key as you draw a line, it becomes perfectly vertical, horizontal or diagonal on 45°.
And, it works on any shape. Hold shift while drawing an oval and it becomes a perfect circle, rectangles become squares, etc.
And this works across the MS Office apps, most every version!

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